30 September 2013

Own Me Save Me

The infamous artist SaveMe Oh, whose often-disruptive presence has been an issue of controversy in the Second Life arts world for years, has taken on the recent change in Linden Lab's Terms of Service (specifically, section 2.3) with something of a pop-up gallery fire sale. Known for inserting herself obstreperously into art openings by, say, wearing a house, she is also quite skillful at inserting herself into the images of classic paintings. She has produced enough of these to fill a fairly large gallery—click on the images below to see details of a few (and read this interesting October 2012 review by Thirza Ember for more thoughts). Of course, with changes to the ToS these works by SaveMe are now owned not by her but by Linden Lab, fueling her motivation for this "Own Me Save Me" event.

"To prevent Linden Lab from selling out all the masterpieces of SaveMe Oh she will sell out her work herself before it is too late. If you ever wanted to own a SaveMe here is your chance to do so," she declares. But you can't just teleport to a fixed gallery space—rather, she finds "secret selling spots" to stage her operation. She rezzes the gallery (eight rooms if I remember correctly) in an undisclosed location that changes each time, and sends out a notice via the .:SL Art:. group (and other groups) with a landmark. Then, working efficiently before the gallery disappears again, you arrive, browse, pick your images and pay what you want—she'll accept any reasonable offer—and you're the proud owner of original SaveMe Oh artworks. Or not, depending on whether or not we own anything at all.

6 comments:

Every once in a while, there is a true original. SaveMe Oh is one of those. Nobody could duplicate her relentless assault on all things SL art. She makes you think, takes nothing for granted, and rewrites all the rules.

Thanks, Scarp. Even defending SaveMe in the slightest can sometimes be at the risk of consternation from others, as witness the poorly worded comment from Anonymous. (Unless that's from SaveMe herself, of course.)